Category Archives: Inspiration/ Positive News and Features

Wipro’s Azim Premji emerges as most generous Indian in FY20

Amazing Feats, Business & Economy, Education, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Leaders, Records, All, World Opinion

Premji pipped HCL Technologies’ Shiv Nadar, who had earlier topped the list collated by Hurun Report India and Edelgive Foundation, by a wide margin.

Wipro Chairman Azim Premji (File Photo | PTI)

Mumbai :

IT major Wipro’s Azim Premji donated Rs 22 crore a day or Rs 7,904 crore in a year to emerge as the most generous Indian in FY20 and top a list of philanthropy.

Premji pipped HCL Technologies’ Shiv Nadar, who had earlier topped the list collated by Hurun Report India and Edelgive Foundation, by a wide margin.

Nadar’s donations stood at Rs 795 crore for FY20 as against Rs 826 crore in the year-ago period.

Premji had donated Rs 426 crore in the previous fiscal.

Richest Indian Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries retained the third spot among the list of givers by donating Rs 458 crore as against Rs 402 crore a year ago, it said.

The raging pandemic had the corporate honchos repurposing their donations to fight the COVID infections, and the top giver on this turned out to be Tata Sons with a Rs 1,500- crore commitment, followed by Premji at Rs 1,125 crore and Ambani’s Rs 510 crore.

A bulk of the corporate commitments seemed to be given to the PM-CARES Fund, with Reliance Industries committing Rs 500 crore, and Aditya Birla Group donating Rs 400 crore, the report said.

It can be noted that Tatas’ commitment also includes a Rs 500 crore donation to the newly created fund.

Premji’s generosity pulled the total donations up by 175 per cent to Rs 12,050 crore in FY20, the list said.

Azim Premji Endowment Fund owns 13.6 per cent of the promoter’s shareholding in Wipro and has the right to receive all money earned from promoter shares, the report said.

The number of individuals who have donated more than Rs 10 crore increased marginally to 78 from the year-ago period’s 72, the report said.

With a donation of Rs 27 crore, Amit Chandra and Archana Chandra of ATE Chandra foundation are the first and only professional managers to ever enter the list.

The list has three of Infosys’ co-founders with Nandan Nilekani (Rs 159 crore), S Gopalkrishnan (Rs 50 crore) and S D Shibulal (Rs 32 crore).

The list of 109 individuals who have donated over Rs 5 crore has seven women, led by Rohini Nilekani’s Rs 47 crore.

Education is the highest beneficiary sector with 90 philanthropists, led by Premji and Nadar, donating Rs 9,324 crore, the report said, adding healthcare came second with 84 donors and was followed by disaster relief and rehabilitation with 41 donors.

The financial capital led by donor count at 36, followed by New Delhi at 20 and Bengaluru at 10.

E-commerce firm Flipkart’s co-founder Binny Bansal was the youngest donor at 37 with a commitment of Rs 5.3 crore and the average age of the donors on the list was 66 years, it said.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Business / by PTI / November 10th, 2020

India’s first game designer to be inducted into Women in Games Hall of Fame, talks about her journey

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion
Poornima Seetharaman

Poornima Seetharaman did not set out to be a game designer. After her engineering, she landed her first job at a South Korean mobile game development company in Mumbai. She was given a month’s time to come up with the design for a 2D mobile game along the lines of Neverwinter Nights. “Back then, there were barely any resources available. I found Chris Crawford’s Game Design Document template. The company also provided me with Dungeon and Dragons (D&D) manuals which are considered the Bible for role-playing games,” she says. It was enough to get her hooked on.

Today she has become the first Indian game designer to be inducted into the Women in Games, Global Hall of Fame. The Bengaluru-based designer has managed to break into a strictly male bastion. “On one hand, there is the struggle of breaking the invisible glass ceiling and on the other hand you do get some opportunities because you are a woman in gaming. At times, it is a struggle to be taken seriously or to be considered an equal or better. I’m here because I refuse to give up and I’ve a support system that treats me on equal footing,” says Seetharaman, who is currently part of the Zynga family as their Lead Game Designer.

Screen grabsof the games she designed

In her almost 15-year-long career, Seetharaman considers Bioshock 3D Mobile—a remake of the original BioShock game for the BREW platform—the major turning point. Fitting a sprawling game into a feature phone with all sorts of restrictions was a huge achievement for her team and was one of the most rewarding experiences for her. It helped her grow as a professional, believes the designer, who is also visiting faculty, project consultant and curriculum committee member at the National Institute of Design, Bengaluru.

When not designing, Seetharaman likes to play Age of Empires II and Warcraft III, which according to her are “the reasons why I’m in game development today”. Quiz her about her dream project and she replies without hesitation, “Madhuram (sweetness), an infusion of Carnatic music with games, to take the player on a journey of Navarasa (nine emotions). The idea—inspired by my late aunt, Guru TR Balamani who devoted her entire life to teaching Carnatic music even as she sacrificed her concert career—has been brewing for almost six years now.

It shall hopefully see light of the day soon.” India is slowly edging towards becoming a gaming hub. But the prime focus is the mobile market that assures funding for companies that run fantasy sports, real money gaming, educational games ,etc. “The PC/Console game and generally the indie scene in India could use some more love. We have the talent and the skills. I’m setting up a community for women and marginalised genders in games,” says Seetharaman, who believes in using the power of gaming to create a meaningful and impactful change in thinking.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Magazine / by Medha Dutta Yadav / November 08th, 2020

12 volumes on the life and works of Kuvempu digitised

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Leaders, Records, All

After nearly two decades of research, Kannada University Hampi brought out a magnum opus — 12 volumes on the life and works of Rashtrakavi Kuvempu.

Deputy CN Ashwath Narayan and VTU V-C Karisiddappa (right)launch the digital version of Kuvempu’s works. (Photo | Express)

Bengaluru :

After nearly two decades of research, Kannada University Hampi brought out a magnum opus — 12 volumes on the life and works of Rashtrakavi Kuvempu. These include his letters to friends and family. And the university has digitised it.The whole effort started in 1999 when Dr K C Shivareddy, Professor at Kannada University Hampi, began collecting the works, letters, interviews and anecdotes on the life of Kuppali Venkatappa Puttappa, popularly known as Kuvempu.  

The most significant is the letters that Kuvempu wrote to his family and friends, Shivareddy told TNIE.


Shivareddy had quite some convincing to do (even Kuvempu’s son Poornachandra Tejaswi)  to let the letters become public.”These letters give nuanced shades of Kuvempu’s life– from instilling financial discipline in his children, to his camaraderie with writers who influenced him. I reminded Tejaswi about other writers whose letters played an important role in understanding their creative writing holistically,” Shivareddy said.

Individual volumes were out over the year, and the compilation of all 12 volumes was out on Monday. This compilation was put in digitised form, on the insistence of Deputy Chief Minister Ashwath Narayan, said Dr Shivakumar, co-founder of Bhashini Services, whose team converted the texts into Unicode, a readable EPUB format, in less than 15 days.

Shivakumar, an engineering graduate from the Indian Institute of Science, had given up his corporate job to pursue his dream of making Indian literature go digital. He used his expertise of Machine Learning (OCR & TTS) in which he got a PhD, to digitise more than 500 books of prominent Kannada writers.


S C Ramesh, Vice Chancellor, Kannada University Hampi, told TNIE that the university had already released more than 2,000 titles, yet saw the importance of technology in literature.Karisiddappa, Vice Chancellor, Visvesvaraya Technological University, which collaborated on this venture, said that a maximum number of National Poets (Rashtrakavis) are from Karnataka, and digitising would only take this literature to a global audience.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Pearl Maria D’Souza / Express News Service / November 03rd, 2020

‘Aam Aadmi Clinic’ in Shantinagar

Amazing Feats, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Records, All, Science & Technology

It is modelled on the Delhi government’s mohalla clinic

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is starting an ‘Aam Aadmi clinic’, modelled on the Delhi government’s mohalla clinic, in Shantinagar on Sunday, which is celebrated as Rajyotsava Day.

The clinic will be run with donations from the savings of volunteers and supporters through a registered trust.

“This is a pilot project to show how primary health service should be provided by the BBMP and the government. It will function from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday to Saturday,” said former IAS officer Renuka Viswanathan, who is one of the five trustees.

“The clinic will have a doctor, a nurse, a lab technician and another person to help with patient registration. We will provide allopathic consultation, drugs and 60 diagnostic tests free of cost. While the blood samples will be collected at the clinic, we have tied up with a private lab for the tests,” she said.

The clinic, located on Basappa Road in Shantinagar, will be inaugurated at 10.30 a.m. on Sunday, she added.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Special Correspondent / November 01st, 2020

NGO’s free plasma service

Amazing Feats, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Records, All, Resources of Free Materials, Science & Technology

Mercy Mission, a coalition of NGOs working for COVID-19 relief in Bengaluru, that runs a helpline to meet plasma needs of COVID-19 patients, has sourced 400 units so far. It has partnered with Bangalore Medical Services Trust (BMST TTK blood bank) and Healing Touch, an NGO to provide the free service.

Safeer Mohammed, a volunteer with Mercy Mission, told The Hindu that over 70% of their donors are volunteers themselves. “We prioritise requests for plasma and to ensure the request is authentic, we do a thorough check,” he said. “We cater to patients’ requests round the clock and do not ask for replacements.”

Patients can contact the Covid Plasma Helpline 080-47191133 (press 2)/ +91 8792025246.

Individuals can also visit Mercy Mission’s Twitter page (MercyMission1) or websites -http://healingtouch-society. comandhttps://covidhelpline bangalore.com/

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Bengaluru – October 22nd, 2020

First woman IAF officer Wing Commander Vijayalakshmi Ramanan dies at 96 in Bengaluru

Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Records, All, Science & Technology

She and her husband K V Ramanan, who was also an IAF officer and had persuaded her to join the Army Medical Corps, were also the first couple to serve in the Air Force

IAF officer Vijayalakshmi Ramanan (left) with then Vice President S Radhakrishnan

Bengaluru :

The first woman officer of the Indian Air Force (IAF), Wing Commander Vijayalakshmi Ramanan, passed away in Bengaluru on Sunday night at the age of 96.

She had pursued her MBBS from Madras Medical College in 1943. Awarded the best outgoing student in 1948, she went on to do her DGO and MD in obstetrics and gynaecology, and worked at Egmore Maternity Hospital, Chennai.

Later, she joined the Army Medical Corps in 1955 on Short Service Commission and was seconded to the Air Force as the first lady commissioned officer as a gynaecologist. She was posted in the Air Force Hospitals in Kanpur, Secunderabad and Bengaluru. During the wars in 1962, 1966 and 1971, she treated wounded soldiers.

She and her husband K V Ramanan, who was also an IAF officer and had persuaded her to join the Army Medical Corps, were also the first couple to serve in the Air Force. He passed away at the age of 47, in 1971, after battling cancer.

“Even until 11 days ago, she was alert and had written a note to her attending doctor. And until a few months ago, she was filing her income tax returns,” shares son-in-law SVL Narayan, a retired IT professional.

She pursued her interest in Carnatic music, having learnt from eminent musicians. “She was an AIR artiste from the age of 15 and represented her college in music competitions. She broadcast regularly from Delhi, Lucknow, Secunderabad and Bangalore,” says Narayan.

Ramanan was elated when one of her “interns” visited to seek her blessings last year. “Padma Bandopadhyay, who went on to become the first air marshal in the Air Force, was facing opposition from family when she wanted to marry her Bengali colleague. That’s when my grandfather intervened and oversaw the marriage in Secunderabad,” recalls her granddaughter Sukanya.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Vidya Iyengar / Express News Service / October 21st, 2020

‘GoPink’ women-only taxi service at Bengaluru airport having a smooth ride

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Records, All, Travel

Women, senior citizens and children are taken on board this service. Apart from pre-booking of taxis, spot booking too is permitted by GoPink.

Bengaluru :

The increase in domestic passenger traffic at the Bengaluru airport with every passing month means good news to a taxi service operated by women for women at the Kempegowda International Airport. Taxi service, GoPink, which was hugely popular among women flyers to Bengaluru, is now seeing much better days, a sharp contrast to the bleak future it was facing in the first quarter of this financial year.

Domestic flight operations shut since March 25 across the country have resumed from May 25 while regular international flights continue to remain shut from March 22 with only Vande Bharat Mission and the Air Travel Bubble flights operating. GoPink Co-founder Anuradha Udayshankar told The New Indian Express, “Our business is picking up now, particularly the last three months, and my drivers are extremely busy. In contrast to the scene experienced by male cab drivers of taxis operating to and from the airport who appear to be waiting for countless hours to get a customer, our cab drivers run four to five trips per day from KIA presently. In addition, they are getting requests for travel to outstation locations from Bengaluru.”

The taxi service, which began operations at the airport on January 7, 2019, is fitted with GPS, Panic buttons, Mobile Data terminal devices as well as Pepper sprays to ensure safety of both the driver and the passenger.

Women, senior citizens and children are taken on board this service. Apart from pre-booking of taxis, spot booking too is permitted by GoPink. “We used to operate 24×7 earlier. In the absence of most international flights which used to land at night, we now operate from 5.30 am to midnight and sometimes even an hour beyond it,” she said.

Though business is not anywhere near pre-COVID levels, Udayshankar was upbeat. “Traffic is picking up with each passing month due to the increase in passenger flow. More women drivers are showing an inclination to join our workforce,” she added. Speaking about the health and safety protocol being observed bearing in mind the COVID scenario, the co-founder said that much care was taken before every trip.

“The vehicle is sanitised before every trip to ensure passenger safety. Masks are worn and physical distancing is maintained. None of our drivers has caught the Corona virus so far. Barring the first national lockdown, we have been operating daily,” she explained. The women drivers have also been advised to use sanitizers frequently as well as inhale steam and have hot water baths after reaching home after work and they are adhering to it scrupulously, the co-founder added.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Good News / by S. Lalitha / Express News Service / October 16th, 2020

CHD Group wins award

Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Records, All

CHD Group, a public health organisation based in Mangaluru, has won the ASSOCHAM NGO Award 2020 for its work carried out as part of COVID-19 emergency relief activities.

CHD Group won the award under the category of “Excellence in demonstrating speed in decision making and supporting time critical needs of the community”, said a statement from the group.

It worked remotely during the lockdown in Karnataka, Odisha, Chhatisgarh and Telangana to provide relief and rehabilitation to distressed people and support farmers as well as farm workers during harvest season.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Mangaluru – October 15th, 2020

The Richie Rich of Bengaluru

Business & Economy, Education, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Leaders, Records, All, World Opinion

Garden City, tech hub, pub city… And now most preferred city for business headquarters for young wealth creators.

Nikhil Kamath,  co-founder and CIO, Zerodha and True Beacon

Bengaluru : 

The recently-released IIFL Wealth Hurun India 40 & Under Self-Made Rich List 2020 has a ranking of the self-made Indian-origin entrepreneurs with a wealth of Rs 1,000 crore, aged 40 years and under. Bengaluru figures as the city with the highest number of persons on the list. As many as nine entrepreneurs from the list of 17 are city-based, with Nithin Kamath and Nikhil Kamath from Zerodha, ranking first with a wealth of Rs 24,000 crore. 

Sharing his thoughts on the findings, Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and chief researcher, Hurun India, said some of the names on the list have fully or partly exited their core businesses and are setting up investment funds and backing other young entrepreneurs. “This will have a compounding effect on the growth of disruptive entrepreneurship in India,” he said in a statement. 

The 17 Indian-origin entrepreneurs have together added wealth close to Rs 45,000 crore. The list also includes Media.net’s Divyank Turakhia in second place, Bengaluru-based Udaan’s Amod Malviya and Sujeet Kumar in third position, Flipkart’s Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal in seventh rank and Zomato Media’s Deepinder Goyal in the 13th position. 

The only woman on the list is 39-year-old Devita Saraf, who ranks 16th with a wealth of Rs 1,200 crore. Saraf derives her wealth from Vu Technologies, a television manufacturing company, which she founded in 2006.

Richie Rich in Namma Ooru

Nithin Kamath and Nikhil Kamath 
(rank 1; Rs 24,000 cr)Co-founders of online trading platform Zerodha, which grew to become India’s largest stockbroker by the number of clients.

Amod Malviya and Sujeet Kumar 
(rank 3; Rs 13,100 cr) Co-founders of B2B commerce company Udaan.

Riju Ravindran (rank 6; Rs 7,800 cr) 
Brother of Byju Raveendran, who co-founded Byju’s in 2011 with his wife Divya Gokulnath. All three have stakes in the online edtech company.

Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal (rank 7; Rs 7,500 cr) 
Co-founders of Flipkart. Since their exit from Flipkart, Binny Bansal has been investing in several start-ups as an angel investor and Sachin Bansal has co-founded and is the CEO of Navi, a neo-bank start-up headquartered in Bengaluru.

Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati (rank 10; Rs 3,500 cr and rank 14; Rs 1,600 cr) 
Co-founders of Ola. In July 2020, Ola incentivised Aggarwal and Bhati by way of issuing equity shares at a nominal price of Rs 10 per share – resulting in a 13% increase in their wealth compared to last year.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Express News Service / October 14th, 2020

Chuku Buku dream on track

Business & Economy, Green Initiatives / Environment, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Records, All, Science & Technology, Travel, World Opinion

Railway activists celebrate green-lighting of project after campaigning for five years

Bengaluru :

The excitement of the Chuku Buku brigade was palpable, as members tweeted their joy and shared their hopes on WhatsApp groups. Ever since news broke that the Suburban Rail project had been cleared, railway activists who played a crucial role in the campaign, have been celebrating.

Sanjeev Dyammanavar, urban transportation expert and founder of Praja.in, told TNIE, “It is a long-pending project. The dream of all Bengalureans has become a reality today. It was pursed by various departments and K-RIDE showed its keenness in executing it by beginning preliminary work in this connection.”

The ‘Chuku Buku Beku’ campaign, which began in Bengaluru in 2015, an initiative on social media and offline, fetched a great deal of publicity for the project nationwide. Srinivas Alavilli, who coordinated the campaign involving citizens and NGOs, said, “I am cautiously optimistic.

After it was announced in the Union Budget a year ago, it has taken so long for the cabinet nod. We are keen on seeing the actual running of trains and physical infrastructure like stations. Priority needs to be given to Whitefield and Outer Ring Road where traffic congestion is the maximum.”

Rajkumar Dugar, convener, Citizens for Citizens, said, “I am extremely delighted. But I wish an official announcement too had been made. On highest priority is the KSR-Devanahalli line as connectivity to the airport is very important.”  Zibi Jamal of Whitefield Rising said, “It has been a long, hard campaign with so many people contributing, including Praja and Citizens for Bengaluru. Politicians across parties supported us.” 

Proposed fare structure

Minimum: Rs 13 (for less than 3 km) to a maximum of Rs 100 at 2025  price levels.
Price level to be escalated by 10% every two years.

Airport connectivity

 Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna-Yesvantpur-Yelahanka-Devanahalli-Kempe Gowda International Airport: 41.4 km

 Land required 15.96 acres.

Cost Rs 251.9 cr

Length: 5.5 km

Train operation plan
 Six-car trains  
19 hours a day operation from 5 am till midnight with 30-second stop  at each station

Average speed 33 kmph with a maximum speed of 90 kmph

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Express News Service / October 08th, 2020